BREKO press release: Deutsche Glasfaser expands financing framework to EUR 1.8 billion – clear signal for fiber optic expansion in Germany
BREKO expressly welcomes the increase in the financing framework at its member company Deutsche Glasfaser.
The significant increase in debt capital to EUR 1.8 billion is another clear signal that the fiber optic expansion business model in Germany works and is highly attractive for financial investors. In November 2019, infrastructure investor EQT acquired BREKO member company Inexio for around EUR 1 billion. In the recent past, financial investors have also invested in regionally active BREKO network operators such as Goetel, Ndix and Titan Networks, which are also pushing ahead with the expansion of fiber optics to buildings (FTTB) and homes (FTTH).
“If we are serious about digitalization in Germany, there is no way around the nationwide expansion of fiber optics to at least the buildings,” emphasizes BREKO Managing Director Dr. Stephan Albers. Albers continues: “Our more than 200 network operators bear a great responsibility for the digital future of our country and are fully committed to fiber optic expansion.”
The examples show very clearly that there is sufficient capital available in the telecommunications market to bring fiber optic expansion to citizens and companies. Extensive funding programs such as the so-called “grey areas” funding program planned by the Federal Ministry of Transport, on the other hand, represent considerable market intervention. In addition, the funding procedures are very lengthy and so far only a fraction of the available funding has actually been used (according to the provisional financial statements of the Federal Ministry of Finance for the 2019 federal budget dated January 13, 2020, only EUR 27.2 million of the EUR 2.4 billion was called up in 2019).
BREKO Managing Director Albers is therefore convinced: “State funding with a “watering can” and without a clear prioritization in favor of particularly poorly supplied areas will not accelerate the expansion of fiber optics, but rather slow it down, as the already scarce civil engineering and planning capacities are tied up in funding projects and are then no longer available for private-sector expansion”.
Albers concludes: “Money alone does not build fiber optic networks. In addition to moderate funding, we need less bureaucracy in the form of faster and simpler approval procedures and the acceptance of alternative installation methods.”